The Windsor Spitfires season is on the line Tuesday as they host Kitchener for Game 7 of their second-round Ontario Hockey League playoff series.
The Spitfires return home to the WFCU Centre for the deciding game of the series after falling 4-0 in Game 6 in Kitchener.
Windsor won the first three games of the series, outscoring Kitchener 16-5, but the Rangers have rattled off three wins in a row to avoid elimination, which included shutouts in Game 4 and Game 6, outscoring Windsor 12-2.
Injuries and illness have played a factor in the series, with multiple players missing games during the series, including captain Liam Greentree, AJ Spellacy, and Carson Woodall.
Spitfires' play-by-play announcer Steve Bell says the Spits don't want to use the missing players as an excuse.
"Give the Rangers some credit. The last three games, Jackson Parsons, the overage player of the year in the OHL, a really good goaltender with more wins than any other goalie in the OHL this year, so a combination of the Spits faltering a little bit and the Rangers finding their stride made the first three games all Windsor and the last three games all Kitchener," he says.
The Windsor Spitfires finished the regular season ranked 10th in the CHL, while the Rangers were the 8th-ranked junior hockey team in the country.
Bell says Windsor needs to get back to playing "Spitfire hockey."
"Right now at times, it looks like some guys are trying to do too much on their own. That seldom works. They've got to get back to their swagger. This is a club, especially with that top line of Ilyas Protas, Noah Morneau, and Liam Greentree. I think when they're on, they may be the best line in the entire league," he says.
Bell says the Spitfires need to get some traffic around Rangers overage goalie Jackson Parsons.
"He's a really good goaltender. If he sees it, most times he's going to stop it. You've got to be careful; you don't want to run any goaltender interference. You got in his kitchen a little bit, as they say. Take his eyes away, a little bit of a screen, and guys going in his direction," he says.
Bell says it's been a tale of two different teams at points in this series, with the Spitfires getting up early 3 games to none.
"Everybody, even in Kitchener, was talking about a sweep; Spits in 4. I said, Hold on. The Rangers had 100 points in the regular season; it's a really good Kitchener club, and before it started, I predicted the Spits would win it in 7 {games}, and I'm going to stick with that," he says.
AM800 has the broadcast from Tuesday night's game starting with the pre-game show with Steve Bell and Manny Pavia at 6:50 p.m.